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Joel Dorn

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Posted on December 19, 2007 at 09:08:23
Duilawyer
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Posts: 29475
Joined: November 5, 2001
Producer helped shape Atlantic Records' sound

By Jon Thurber, December 19, 2007
Joel Dorn, a producer who won two consecutive Grammys for record of the year at Atlantic Records while helping to shape that label's distinctive jazz sound, died Monday after suffering a heart attack in New York. He was 65.

"Joel bridged the worlds of jazz and pop with enormous skill and grace, never compromising the integrity of his artists and their music," Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and chief executive of the Warner Music Group, which includes Atlantic Records, said in a statement. "A great character, he loved and understood the music, and he had a rare gift of identifying genuine talent and drawing out their best work."

Dorn worked for Atlantic from 1967 to 1974, when the label had some of the hottest producers in the business, including label co-founder Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, as well as Nesuhi Ertegun, Ahmet's brother and head of the jazz division.

Dorn's use of pop production techniques brought new attention to jazz artists, including drummer Max Roach, flutist Herbie Mann, pianist Les McCann, saxophonist Eddie Harris, vibraphonist Gary Burton and saxophonists Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Yusef Lateef.

In the pop field, he produced singer Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," which was named record of the year for 1972. Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," also produced by Dorn, took the same honor the next year.

He was also the primary producer on Bette Midler's debut album on Atlantic, "The Divine Miss M." Among the other leading pop artists he worked with were the Neville Brothers, Don McLean, Lou Rawls and Donny Hathaway.

 

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If you grew up in Philly in the early '70s, you knew him as "The Masked Announcer", posted on December 20, 2007 at 19:20:14
andy_c
Audiophile

Posts: 1470
Joined: June 2, 2007
One of the stranger things Joel Dorn did was advertise plastic slipcovers on Philadelphia UHF TV. His regular job at that time was as a DJ on the radio station WHAT. As "The Masked Announcer", he wore a fedora, a Lone Ranger-style mask, and an ultra-cheap suit. He had a beard, and long hair going half way down his back. The commercials of this total freak selling plastic slipcovers were the stuff of legend in Philly in those days, bringing much laughter to many people.

He made absolutely no attempt to be serious in those commercials. In fact, he made a deliberate joke of the whole thing. He claimed his name was "Rondo H. Slade", and that "The 'H' stands for 'humility'". Here is a quote from him:

"I was selling clear plastic slipcovers and carpeting vacuum cleaners and vegetable choppers and all that shit, right? What we would do is, we would go to the TV station and I would have this beat-up old cheap suit and this cheap hat and an ugly shirt, and I put like a regular ten-cent mask on. And we would get high in the car on the way to the station. And I just babbled: We would make fifty commercials in two hours, and then we would pick the funniest ones, what we thought were the funniest ones. Kids loved them, man. The Masked Announcer – I’m talking about it like it ain’t me – but he was a funny motherfucker. We used to have so much fun, and the commercials were great. It fucking sounds terrible when I say it, but we laughed our asses off."

Kids did love those commercials! I know I sure did.

Another memory I have is that one time he took out an ad in the Philly newspaper - probably the Inquirer. The ad had only a small cartoon image of the Masked Announcer, and simply had the caption "BELIEVE in The Masked Announcer". That was it. It's not clear why he took out this ad or what its purpose was, but my brother found it, cut it out of the paper and had it in his room as a decoration for quite some time. It was a rare find, kind of like a rare coin in a way.

Few people in Philadelphia knew until long after these commercials that he had become a record producer, and what his accomplishments were in that area. To many people, he will always be The Masked Announcer, not Joel Dorn.

One funny motherfucker indeed!
RIP

 

RE: If you grew up in Philly in the early '70s, you knew him as "The Masked Announcer", posted on May 10, 2013 at 07:22:05
I also remember Mr. Living Room who spoke with a lisp and sold "adorable dinettes." Does anyone remember the tiny newspaper ads for the Troc burlesque theater? The ads would appear in the next to last page of the Daily News and they would feature one of the strippers. Each stripper would have a pun like name along with pun like phrases. I always wanted to see them use the name Robin Banks along with the comments "she'll steal your heart away" and "she doesn't have any 20's, only 50's."

 

RE: If you grew up in Philly in the early '70s, you knew him as "The Masked Announcer", posted on March 16, 2023 at 15:43:57
Dr.Strange
Audiophile

Posts: 1
Joined: March 16, 2023
Oh I remember those ads well. My Catholic mother would not allow "That rag" in the house. My favorite stripper ad was "Lynn Oleum, She'll floor you"

 

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